


In Which Everything Hits The Chandelier

by OriginalWeird



Category: N.E.R.D.S. - Michael Buckley
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-18
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2020-09-06 12:54:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20291794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OriginalWeird/pseuds/OriginalWeird
Summary: They needed a reason for being at the fancy restaurant that wasn't spying on a villainess.So this is happening now.





	In Which Everything Hits The Chandelier

It seemed logical that going undercover would progress. It seemed logical that just pretending to be somewhere, no purpose behind it, would ruin a good part of the façade. It seemed logical that they be volunteered-he knew the most about the plan and the gadgets, she knew the most about being undercover. 

But. Um. 

Matilda Choi will be seventeen in two months, and she's sitting in a fancy restaurant across from the boy she's had a crush on since age twelve, faking being on a date with him as they watch a villainess across the room. 

It's just a tiny bit awkward.

This awkwardness is not being helped by her teammates, who should, theoretically, be able to talk to her and Gluestick and advise them. All that she's actually heard is Braceface repeatedly singing K-I-S-S-I-N-G, intermittent Pufferfish telling him to shut up and then telling her and Gluestick to stay in contact despite said singing.

She knows the team can see them. They've hacked the cameras in this stupid restaurant. She knows the villainess can see them. She hopes her disguise-and his disguise-will hold up. They look different. They look like they belong amongst the weird candle-y mood lighting and the zillion forks and knives and spoons set at every place. 

They, hopefully, don't look like spies who have reason to believe their latest adversary is meeting a contact here. 

Pufferfish's voice interrupts Braceface's eighty-sixth teasing rendition. 

"Wheezer. Gluestick. You're literally just sitting there and staring at each other. Would you please at least attempt to act natural?"

"Yeah, you should-"

"Braceface, I don't want to hear it. Stop talking."

Act natural. Act natural. How do people act?

A quick glance around her reminded her that she should be talking to Glu-Duncan. Argh, she's here now, she looks stupid, she can talk. Talking's easy. 

Talking is not easy, she has no idea what to say.

He starts speaking instead.

"Nice place, huh, beautiful?"

OH HELL. She's done for. She should talk-HE JUST CALLED HER BEAUTIFUL-she's undercover as his girlfriend, according to their cover story, she can do this, she just has to…

Matilda Choi smiles a gooey, lovesick smile and curses how easy it is to do so.

"It's just perfect."

It's not perfect. Not really. But the girly-girl she's faking being thinks it is. Actual her thinks it's nice. Just nice. When she pictures her first official date with Duncan-not that that's something she does often, of course-she usually pictures them at maybe some awesome wrestling match, or one of those sci-fi movies he loves-one of the semi-scientifically accurate ones, but still with explosions-or somewhere else more awesome. She saw one of the movies that he likes was playing, actually. She thought it looked good. She'd been wondering if she'd be able to ask him to go with her sometime. 

He's probably already seen it. She has a mission.

Well, maybe the restaurant is a little better than nice. She likes the tanks of fighting fish along the walls. She likes the sheer number of knives, good weapons. 

And maybe, just maybe, she even likes the stupid candle-y lighting. Not in principle, as such, but…well…it's making his eyes look really, really nice, which is nothing she'd ever say out loud. 

"Glad you think so."

They have a whole backstory. They went over it on the way over here (in his dad's car, in which he had picked her up to a large amount of brother-heckling) and she knows every detail, pretty much. She knows the backup plan for each contingency. She needs to be talking.

"Seriously, it was great of you to even think of this."

"It was nothing. The part-time job is helping with extra cash."

Right, the…she'll say Duncan's character, is working at a mechanic. Real Duncan just invents stuff. That's more impressive, if you ask her, but no-one did. 

"Oh, how's that going? Your boss okay?"

They have about a million conversation topics stored up. This is not a mission for which they can underprepare.

"Yeah, he thinks someone might be pinching extra change, though."

"Oh, how awful! You aren't trying to figure it out yourself, are you?"

"Wh-"

"You're pretty bad with the amateur detective stuff, honey."

Ha, she just called him honey. That felt weird. But…uh. Nice?

"You're exaggerating."

"Yeah right-oh."

Someone is now sitting across from their suspect. She needs to make him look over there.

"You alright?"

"Nothing. It's-"

Head moves.

"Nothing."

Head. Toward. The. Villainess.

"Is something-oh."

"Well, I think that…"

Waiter. There's a waiter there. She can't look at the villainess because some guy in a white shirt with a notepad is standing next to their table.

"Are you ready to order?"

This guy's smile looks forced. Is it because they're teenagers? They're fancy enough for this place! She's wearing a dress! And makeup! And her hair is brushed! The Hyena swung in her window and scared her brothers so she could help!

"Oh…Drinks?"

Did this guy just roll his eyes at her?

Oh, he's gonna die-

He's gonna die later, she has a job to do.

"I'd just like a water."

She doesn't hear what Duncan says because she's too busy trying to subtly lean and look at the person across from the villainess. They'd look average anywhere, but next to said villainess…

She calls herself The Enchantress, is stupidly tall, and seems to only ever wear shades of purple. The man across from her is average height and wearing a tan suit. Matilda can't hear what they're saying, but she can't imagine what they have in common. She's here to discuss weapons or something, according to the briefing, but this guy looks like he works nine-to-five balancing a stapler company's chequebook.

Eh. Looks can be deceiving. 

"Uh. Mat?"

"Hmm?"

Maybe if she leans a little bit further-

"You're going to fall out of that chair."

No she isn't-oh, she's almost horizontal. She fixes it, trying very hard to appear calm. She's not panicking. The crazy villainy lady didn't just look right at her. She's just here, with her boyfriend, having a nice anniversary dinner, hahaha, ignore her, IGNORE HER. 

Oh, thank god, not looking at them anymore. 

"Oh, I was just…I thought I saw-"

"I know, Mat. Okay, you alright now? You're okay?"

"I was always fine. I'm always…always fine."

Yeah. All good. 

"Your water."

Hey! Crazy waiter! That guy! The one she's gonna kill! 

Oh, she must still look like a madwoman, Duncan's looking at her weird. Less bloodthirsty?

A nod. Yep, she's alright. 

"Thank you!"

She hopes that was a sweet smile. She's been practising, but one in ten still looks murderous. Turns out she was drawing completely the wrong emotion. 

Her friends make her happy. Steel chairs and wrestlers make her happy, but mostly vengeful, which is not what she wants to be. People generally don't take vengeful very well. 

She's doing alright. Not on the verge of having an asthma attack. She takes a puff of her inhaler anyway, because despite her extreme calmness, her chest feels tight. Ah, better now.

What the hell is that?

Oh, that was Duncan placing his hand on top of her hand. 

THAT WAS WHAT?

"You alright? Really?"

Blink.

Don't say something cheesy.

Blink.

Don't say that.

Blink.

"I am now."

WHY DID SHE SAY THAT?

No, it's fine, she's being sappy, she's being the girly girl, she's allowed to do that, it's…

He's smiling at her.

He's...smiling for her.

That…wow.

If she could bottle this feeling, right now, this incredible, uplifting feeling, she'd be a millionaire a few dozen times over.

This might be better than actually flying. 

This isn't her! This can't be her. She…

She doesn't care! She's tough! She's cool! She knows what she's doing! 

SCREW IT.

She flips her hand over so she can hold his. She smiles at him. She keeps up an enthusiastic internal THIS-IS-FINE monologue. 

She falls into an easy conversation they've had a million times before: my-sister-sucks-yeah-well-I-have-seven-brothers. It's barely even a thing she has to think about. Except now she's holding his hand and looking right into his eyes. 

That requires thinking.

They half-pause their conversation to order dinner, and Matilda's trying very hard to keep glancing at the villainess. Jackson's song starts up again inside their heads. It seems to be going fine. 

Then she notices something. 

The man in the tan suit seems to be reaching for something. Something small-ish. Something that seems sort of like…

"HE'S GOT A GUN!"

Wow, thanks for beating her to it, crazy waiter. She jumps up anyway, pulling Duncan with her. It's not a gun. It's some kind of laser. Tan-suit and Enchantress are both holding them. Pointing them everywhere. Swinging them.

Okay, it's just two people with blasters. Jackson's braces will grab-

Nope.

Okay, then maybe Flinch will pick them up and run them far away from here-

Uh.

Well, Ruby will dive through the laser fire she knows is coming and just-

Well.

Matilda and Duncan are not great in these situations.

Ruby's voice overpowers instinct just in time (Blow everything up! Just explode! Attack!). 

"Both of you, up, then drop! Quick!"

An important detail about the fancy restaurant: It's one of those two-stories where the second floor is just balcony. They're on the ground floor. So Matilda grabs Duncan and takes them both up, trying not to hit the enormous chandelier thing dangling there. Before she can drop, tan-suit and all-purple open fire.

So much for not hitting the chandelier. 

Glass, shiny and dangerous, crashes around them, leaving them in a mid-air mine-field. She almost drops Duncan. The two people firing at them are both now holding second lasers. This is a bad development.

Oh, there are civilians EVERYWHERE.

The fire alarm goes off, and Mat briefly wonders who the hell decided to pull the fire alarm. It seems to do the trick, though, because the fancy people in their suits and gowns are shrieking and running out instead of being frozen in their seats. The sprinklers hit determinedly, aggressively. She can't see properly. She readjusts her grip on her date-fake-date, dammit, um. Ruby's screaming-

"One of you, divert fire. Other, drop!"

She can't see well enough to do either of those things. Too much indoor rain for the fire that doesn't exist. She pushes her hair out of her eyes with her elbow, trying very hard not to disturb a balancing act that is getting progressively more difficult to maintain. Oh, she needs to-

She half unthinkingly pulls Duncan up more. She needs to figure out what to do from here-huh, what was that? She's moving, darting through the air, never slowing down, making sure they aren't easy targets, and she's directed something. 

Lasers have hit the ceiling. 

The ceiling is slowly crumbling, rubble is raining with the sprinklers, and they will be buried if they don't get out right now. Someone's screaming. She doesn't think it's her. Is it Duncan? No, he's yelling at her.

She's not moving. She needs to move. 

She's frozen. 

Now Duncan screams.

Glue shoots out of his hand and hits the wall, pulls them toward the window. Her brain snaps to attention and she spins so he doesn't hit it, kicks out so her shoe flies off, smashes her back through the window because she's not letting him get hurt. He's screaming again. Did something hit him? Huh. She tried so hard not to let him get hurt.

Her grip on her inhalers loosens as her back stings from the impact. They're flying away from the building as it collapses in on itself, The Enchantress and the man in the tan suit still inside it. She's slowly losing height, but her back is still aimed for the ground and she doesn't know if she can take a second impact. Duncan's stopped screaming, her link with the team's stopped working, but she still hears screams. All the people who were in the restaurant are below them, and all of them are screaming. Duncan reaches out again. The wall's still standing. Matilda's inhalers fall out of her hands. They stick to the wall. 

It seems like the very air breathes a sigh of relief.

Mat's clinging to Duncan's back as he climbs down. Somewhere, something crashes, and the remaining patrons disperse. Then they're standing alone in an almost-empty parking lot, next to the wreckage of a stupid, fancy restaurant. 

She doesn't know what really triggers it-the adrenaline's running through her mind, she can feel her heartbeat in her throat, and everything's so absurd that it almost seems logical when she lurches forward and kisses him.

She's never kissed anyone before, and for a half-second she doesn't even know if she likes it. Then he pulls her forward more and he's holding her waist and her arms are around his neck and something explodes. She doesn't know what she's doing, but she's appreciating it for all she's worth. 

The circumstances aren't perfect. She's not perfect. Hell, not even he's perfect, even though he's pretty close.

But this moment, right here, is the most perfect thing she's ever experienced. 

It feels like it ends far too soon, but he pulls himself away and she realises she's wheezing pretty badly. 

Duncan freaks out and sets her down like she's made of porcelain before racing off to grab her inhalers from where they fell. Once she can breathe again, she realises she doesn't know what to say. 

They sit next to each other in silence for a minute, maybe two minutes. She stares at her feet. She's only wearing one shoe. When did she lose the other one?

She has to say something.

"Uh. Duncan?"

"Yeah, Mat?"

"Do you…do you wanna go see a movie? With me? Maybe that new robots-and-aliens one? If you haven't already…seen it, that is."

"I…I would love to do that."

And so they do.

She's so happy she almost doesn't punch Jackson in the face when he starts up the same stupid song after seeing her holding Duncan's hand when they walk into the Playground the next day.

Almost.


End file.
